Fostering sustainable improvements in science education: An analysis through four frames

Abstract

There is a pressing need to improve the sustainability of educational improvement efforts, but sustainability remains undertheorized in science education. In this article, we draw upon frameworks from organizational culture and sustainability to characterize change within a single undergraduate science department. This in-depth longitudinal case study over 15 years provides careful documentation of the types of changes that are required to make improvements over time. In particular, we argue that cultural shifts are an important aspect of sustainable improvements. As we show, even a department that was considered an educational improvement "success story" was unable to sustain the improvements made through its initial effort. Nonetheless, we do argue that the initial effort resulted in shifts to multiple aspects of the department's culture (e.g., ways of thinking, the status of education in the department), that we characterize with Bolman and Deal's four frames. These cultural shifts provided the groundwork for a later effort, to ultimately create sustainable structures in the department resulting in sustained improvement. To conclude, we provide recommendations for how to improve the sustainability of change efforts and describe important methodological considerations for future studies of sustainability.

Change theory and theory of change: what’s the difference anyway?

“…Departmental Action Teams (DATs) are externally facilitated groups of faculty, students, and staff working collaboratively in a department toward a collective educational outcome. DATs focus on a single department as a unit of change, recognizing that (a) departments tend to have relatively consistent cultures, and (b) making sustainable changes to education requires cultural change (Reinholz et al, 2019). A DAT meets regularly for up to four semesters, typically for an hour every other week.…”

“…As another example, researchers might assume that lasting changes can be made through a single, momentous change event, rather than through careful, ongoing attention to sustainable improvements. However, research indicates that even very successful change efforts may ultimately result in backsliding, unless explicit attention is paid to sustainability (Reinholz et al, 2019).…”

STEM Is Not a Monolith: A Preliminary Analysis of Variations in STEM Disciplinary Cultures and Implications for Change

“…This may require change agents to consider how to promote exchange of experiences and support if instructors are teaching different courses. This consideration is particularly important, as change efforts are more likely to succeed if they impact the culture of department as a whole, rather than being siloed within small parts of the department (Reinholz et al, 2019b).…”

“…Thus, an essential step toward designing effective change efforts is a deep understanding of departmental culture (NRC, 2012;Kezar, 2014;Froyd et al, 2017;Stanford et al, 2017). If culture is ignored, given its stabilizing properties, changes are likely to result in quick fixes that shortly revert back to the status quo rather than sustainable transformation (Reinholz et al, 2019b). Though departmental culture is not static, if the current culture and norms in a department are ignored, change efforts are less likely to result in sustained adoption of the intended instructional practices (Henderson et al, 2015;Stanford et al, 2017).…”

“…Moreover, individual departments are generally responsible for designing their courses (Quardokus and Henderson, 2015) and socializing their students into their disciplines (Lee, 2007;Lee et al, 2007), so efforts to impact education in, for example, chemistry can be easily located within a chemistry department. Departments are relatively coherent units of culture and, given the stabilizing function of culture, they are important leverage points for sustainable change (Reinholz et al, 2019b).…”